法苑珠林 46.31

46.31

"There are jars with covers that are empty, / And those without covers that are also empty; / There are jars with covers that are full, / And those without covers that are also full. / One should know that in the worlds / There are these four kinds of persons; / Their comportment and virtue, / Their presence or absence, are just like this. / If one is not omniscient, / How can one measure people? / How could seeing merely outward deportment / Enable one to know their virtue? / Truly knowing that one has a wholesome mind / Is what is called the sign of a worthy person. / Seeing only outward deportment, / How can one know what is within? / If by the outward one measures the inward / And gives rise to a mind of contempt, / One ruins oneself and one's roots of goodness, / And at the end of life falls into the evil realms. / Outwardly one falsely displays deportment, / Moving about as a worthy and good person, / Yet having only spoken words, / Like thunder without rain."